Vehicle manufacturers are increasingly designing safety features within vehicles with the intent of increasing the safety of passengers. Many of these systems include safety warning features that are designed to warn the driver of driving related risks. In some instances, these safety measures take into account environmental conditions such as inclement weather that influence sensors that are attached to the vehicle to alert the driver for issues that can affect the safety during vehicle operation. However, these systems often are unable to warn of possible or arising emergencies that take place in the broader environment that can affect the safety of occupants in the vehicle.
In the United States, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) (formally the Emergency Broadcast System) is designed to communicate civil emergency messages and warnings that can affect people that are located in a certain location (i.e., nationally, statewide or local). The EAS requires television and radio broadcasters (including terrestrial and satellite radio service providers) to broadcast emergency alert messages related to national, state, and local emergencies. In many instances, the emergency alert messages contain important emergency information provided by many national, state, and/or local agencies to promote and ensure the safety of those in viewing or listening range of the broadcasts.
In many instances, the emergency alert messages can be very impactful in ensuring that those in the viewing or listening range of the EAS broadcast are properly warned and can take adequate measures to protect themselves against a potential or impending emergency. In many instances, the measures that can be taken by a driver and/or passengers in adequately reacting to the emergency alert message can translate into life saving measures. For example, an emergency alert message may contain a tornado warning which can alert the driver of the vehicle to steer away from a certain area.
There are some shortfalls with the EAS system that can affect the vehicle occupants from receiving emergency alert message broadcasts. One key shortfall of the current EAS system is that if the vehicle is not in operation (i.e., turned OFF), the vehicle occupants can not receive the emergency alert message if they are not listening or viewing a broadcast containing the emergency alert message outside of the vehicle. Another shortfall of the current EAS system lies in the fact that the listener (i.e., driver and/or passenger) must be utilizing the radio function of the audio system of the vehicle and the radio must be tuned in to the radio station channel (i.e., frequency) that is broadcasting the emergency alert message. In addition, the likelihood of vehicle occupants missing the broadcast of an emergency alert message is highly increased in modern vehicles that include many other infotainment options and features (other then radio) that are utilized by the vehicle occupants.